Posts tagged ‘rant’

Happy New Year, kittens and cats! With 2015 well underway, I find myself shifting gears out of (fiscal) necessity. It happens. The Beast must be fed, and those games and gadgets and goodies aren’t gonna buy themselves, right? Pity.

Most of us don’t have the luxury of making the things we want to make most the time. Instead, our stars tend to align in service of other masters. That’s where the term ‘service work’ comes from — it’s your focus and sweat, in varying measures of servitude. So all you can do is cross your fingers, twiddle your rosaries, and pray for decent pay, benevolent bosses, and a pinch of artistic satisfaction after the dice are rolled. I’ve just been lucky to get a few more sevens than snake-eyes.

Somehow — whilst chiseling away at the narrative marble to carve out screenplays, a book, a few comics (animated and otherwise), and potentially cool stuff that never saw the light of day — I’ve been able to fashion a (nearly) functional balance between passion projects and rewarding contracts. Writing and narrative design. Animation. Interactive stuff. You can even scope some of it here.

And I’m about to start work on another one, helmed by one of my fav’ game industry pals. We first collaborated on a pretty cool Japanese co-produced PS2 launch game. This was easily one of the most rewarding and educational experiences of my professional life; the scope was massive, the timeline tight, and the team endlessly ambitious. 15 years on, and things have come full circle in many ways. Colour me optimistic.

But it doesn’t always work out so smoothly. In fact, it wasn’t too long ago that I swore I’d never work on a game contract again.

Like this:

With the Holy-days in full swing, it felt like high time for a wee creative break from all things bookish…you know…at least until the Boxing Day deals kick in.

I’ve been a fan of spoken word pieces for a few years now — good storytelling is good storytelling, and it ain’t useful being a slave to format or genre. But truthfully? I’ve never had to guts to perform one live. Live audiences can be insanely hard to impress, particularly when you have a world champion spitting hot truth in your backyard.

Still, the itch remained.

Yup.

I’ve been quietly nurturing a vid channel for a while now; mostly it’s for short films and animations, trailers, and the odd caffeinated rant, and subscribers seem to dig it. But now, thanks to some solitude, a little tech, WWW image searches, and a pair of mirrored shades..?

It time to get slammy.

There are currently three pieces live. I hope to post a new one monthly throughout 2015. Sure…I won’t be approaching Epic Rap Battle’s turf anytime soon…but, if this thing catches on, I’ll (eagerly) begin taking topic requests. Huzzah.

Peace on Earth, and goodwill to Men…and Women…and furred and feathered friends.

(the following is reposted from a submission of mine that was featured on Tiny Buddha last month, and again on Life As a Widower. It’s a true story from my childhood, though my folks would probably say I was leaning into ‘literary license’ territory. ;) That said, this is the unedited version of the tale, which includes a pictorial peek at my old stomping grounds. More importantly, I want to commemorate the completion of the outline for a long-in-development series of four children’s books, directly inspired by the events recounted below. For all of you taking part in this year’s NaNoWriMo…know that I’m there in the literary trenches with you – BB)

I’ve always been a ‘cat guy’. This was long before my Buddhist friends told me stories of how cats are true earthly masters, here on earth to show us the Way. Or, to demonstrate the meditative perfection of the feline purr. Or, how the life of a cat is seen in some traditions as reward for ‘good Karma’.

When I lived in rural Nova Scotia, the house was blessed with two cats named Midge and Mooch: tabby mixes, who would come and go as they pleased, and were kind enough…if not overly affectionate. I kept asking for a cat of my own, and my folks eventually buckled. For my seventh birthday, I received a black and white kitten with golden eyes and a salmon-pink nose. He took to me instantly. Love at first meow.

Like this:

Featuring the pencil and inking talents of hot newcomer Dane Cypel, the rich colour palette of Sara Machajewski, and based on an original concept by rising genre star Curry Hitchborn, BECOMINGis my return to graphic novel storytelling after completing the original version of Broken Saintsin 2003!

When a troubled student at a remote university challenges his professor to share his ‘secret knowledge’, he is drawn into a horrifying game of life and death. To play, he will learn that the only rule is PAIN, and that the only key to salvation is the desire to KNOW…and the WILL to overcome.

TRAILER*

(*trailer features original music by yours truly and Tobias Tinker – cut and conceived by BB)

(The following editorial was submitted anonymously to IGN.com in 1999, during the wild and woolly days of internet gaming ‘journalism’. This was LONG before FOX had bought them. Hell…when IGN rose out of the primordial cybersoup, it was essentially a hardcore fan site where the Nintendo faithful went for the latest N64 scoops. Yes – I am dating myself. For reasons that will become abundantly clear as you read this, I could not let my cubicle masters at EA catch even the slightest whiff of its origins. This was an era before ‘social media’ was even a tingle in anyone’s nether-regions. Before ‘insider blogs’ glutted the WWW. Before we were all merrily jeopardizing our career paths with mobile cam-uploads and slanderous late-night tweets. And now? My concerns seem almost quaint. Enjoy!)

Art in a Corporate World

Interactive entertainment. Electronic play. Videogames. These are antiquated terms for what has become a multi-billion dollar medium – a method of transferring ideas and experiences through complex mathematics and manifested pathways of light and sound. We hunger for it. Our applause is registered at outposts of the global retail network, a system that is all-too-aware of our narcotic-like need for the next “masterpiece”; the impending “classic”; the “killer app”.

At the beginning of the century, the motion picture medium was demonized as the bastardization of “art.” About halfway through the 1900’s television was introduced, and a cacophony of criticism rose to pan this harbinger of personal intrusion and cultural sideshow… surely this glowing box leaves the masses no more than a “passive, neutered collective,” unable to distinguish art from a torrent of low-brow distraction.

We now face the close of this century, and of this millennium, with a medium that could transcend all those before it – a tool that could give millions the opportunity to express their uniqueness through action, reaction, and consequence – a strange and wondrous synthetic plane, where scientific approach, artistry, and the magic of storytelling combine to cast a spell born of electricity on those with courage, skill, and imagination – where the Creators learn from those who partake, and use their craftsmanship to improve and refine the worlds they have woven, until finally we (you, I, and the gaming collective) can choose to explore the mystery and splendour of a Virtual Eden…all whims satisfied…no wish too great.